Community News

A high speed pursuit that started with a deputy getting shot in Montague County ended with law enforcement and the suspect exchanging gunfire at a busy highway intersection in Decatur, Thursday, March 21, 2013. (Wise County Messenger/ | )

Evan Ebel (Colorado Dept. of Corrections)

DECATUR, Texas — A team of investigators, including those from the El Paso County Sheriff's and Denver police departments, met on Friday to study the contents of a black Cadillac believed to have been driven by a white supremacist possibly linked to the murder of Colorado's prisons chief Tom Clements.

Law enforcement officers were gathering at the Wise County Sheriff's Office in Decatur, where the car was being processed in a secure building.

Federal and state law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have identified the Cadillac driver as Evan Ebel, 28, a member of the white supremacist prison gang known as the 211 Crew.

Ebel, who led Texas authorities on a wild chase and gunfight on Thursday, was being kept on life support late Thursday after being struck by police gunfire.

Decatur Police Chief Rex Hoskins, who was among those Ebel fired at during the chase, said did not know Ebel's condition Friday morning.

Nor did he know what led him to northwest Texas. That was among the questions authorities hoped to answer on Friday, Hoskins said.

"I'm inclined to think he was probably just passing through," Hoskins said.

Police planned a news conference later Friday morning.

Lt. Jeff Kramer, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, said three or four major crimes investigators are in Texas working with officials there.

"Ultimately they went down there to make an assessment of any evidence found in the Texas case that they can tie to our case," Kramer said. "We want to see if we can gain a level of confidence that it is connected or decide we had high hopes but it didn't pan out."

Clements, the executive director of the state Department of Corrections, was shot Tuesday night as he opened the door of his Monument home.

A black Cadillac with Colorado license plates was involved in a shooting and chase in Texas. (Provided by KTVT CBS-DFW)

Denver police said they believe there is a connection between the Texas case and the killing of a pizza delivery driver, who answered a call in Denver on Sunday and was shot multiple times.

On its Twitter feed Friday morning, the Denver police department said that because of "great work" by Golden police investigators, Denver police detectives and Denver Crime Laboratory forensic examiners, "we are confident the Texas suspect is also suspect in the Denver/Golden case."

Denver police also tweeted that the investigation is ongoing despite the suspect's death.

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